Oh hello! It’s been awhile hasn’t it?! I will admit I’ve gotten quite lazy with writing reviews, but with the Golden Globes coming tomorrow, it was time that I churned one out. Omar and I saw The Revenant (2015) yesterday,directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, as well as Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter, and Forrest Goodluck.

Movie trailers tend to always attach quotes such as “masterpiece,” “the most amazing movie in the whole wide world,” “the best ever,” etc etc you get the point. I was excited to see this movie as soon as Omar first shared the trailer with me some time ago. It looked beautiful and interesting from what I saw and I was ready to see Leo on screen again. I don’t tend to believe what the quotes attached to trailers say about a movie, but after seeing The Revenant, WOOO I BELIEVE IT! I loved loved loved this movie. I can honestly say that it was definitely in the Top 10 Most Visually Beautiful movies I’ve EVER seen and though it didn’t have the most amazing story or anything, this movie will always be in my favorites of all the time.

Quick summary before I get going: The Revenant tells the story of a terribly injured (like really terribly) frontiersman, Hugh Glass, who is left for dead in the cold cold wilderness by the group of fur traders he was leading.

So why the perfect 5 out of 5? Let’s begin.

First, like I already said, DAMN this movie was MAJESTIC AND MESMERIZING. Just about every single minute of this movie was visually breathtaking. Whatever I write here will not do it justice, you really have to see it yourself to understand what I’m talking about. Let’s look at some pictures though to give you a taste:

So much nature! So much snow! So much forest! I mean if this movie doesn’t win all the awards for Best Cinematography, I’ll be shocked. (Note: I am horrendously behind on watching all the movies being nominated for all the awards and such so I shouldn’t really be saying anything, but let my above statement be a testament to how impressive this movie was).

Second: the cast. Before I go into my love rant about Leonardo DiCaprio, let me just say that I give all the applause to this entire cast (AND CREW!) because filming this movie must have been absolutely brutal. Just watching the movie made me feel cold and so actually being in that environment and then filming a movie on top of it is quite a feat.

The acting was superb. I’ll start with Forrest Goodluck, who plays the son of Leonardo DiCaprio. Yaaaas, Native American actors on screen! Forrest Goodluck is only 17 years old but from reading about him online, the kid has already done so many amazing things director-wise, which is crazy! Read about him! This is his first breakout role as an actor, and I hope he continues to get roles in the future because he was great.

I was also excited to see Will Poulter in this movie. He’s starting to turn up in a lot of movies and it’s so cool to remember him in School of Comedy in the UK and now he’s in these super-huge epic movies. Also shoutout to Domhnall Gleeson who is also showing up more and more. The dude was in this movie AND Star Wars VII.

Now to Tom Hardy and of course, my sweet sweet Leo. First of all, I need to acknowledge that this is their second time on screen together (the first being Inception). There’s really no point to acknowledging that other than the fact that I love when actors appear in different movies together. Tom Hardy is a talented talented man. I love him and his acting ability really impressed me in this movie. He was a terrible character but he played it so well. I’ve seen him fit into a number of different roles now and I’m happy that he can move from romcom to action movie to gritty British crime thriller to biographical etc etc easily.

Ok, let me the millionth person for the millionth time say JUST GIVE LEO THE DAMN OSCAR ALREADY. Haha, I know that the Oscars and other such awards aren’t an indication of the true talent that an actor has, but I really feel like he deserves all the awards for this role. From reading about how he was close to hypothermia often (I guess most of the actors were but moving on..) to sleeping in animal carcasses… to how he spent most the movie grunting and crawling and screaming in pain… I just think he gave up his mind body and soul to this role. He didn’t speak much in this movie at all, but that doesn’t matter at all. I love Leo in just about every movie I’ve seen him in, so I might be biased, but he really put it all into The Revenant and I hope he is recognized for that.

Third: the screenplay / (lack of?) script. There wasn’t much talking in this movie. There was a lot of grunting and silence. Yet I was enthralled and hooked in the entire time. I don’t have much else to say about that, but it’s always impressive to me when I’m captivated by a movie so intensely that I don’t really notice that the movie as a whole was relatively quiet.

Fourth: Alejandro Iñárritu is slowly becoming one of my favorite directors. I haven’t yet seen Babel, but I’ve seen the rest of his feature films, and though it is a short list, all of them have been extremely strong and impressive movies. Furthermore, this movie must have been extremely frustrating and difficult to take on, especially after two directors had already left the project. Also yaaaas Mexican representation!

Nitpicky things: I guess the story wasn’t that incredible looking back. I don’t want to sell it short, but the movie was essentially a revenge story with other factors mixed in. But I don’t care about that at all. I enjoyed the story and I think that a complicated one might have ruined it.

Penultimately: I’m glad that this movie cast Native actors for the Native roles. I’m also glad that it touched on the destruction that white people brought to their land and people. I appreciate that the movie didn’t romanticize the white frontiersman nor did it trap the Native actors into horrendous stereotypes.

Lastly: THAT MUSIC THO. Absolutely beautiful score and it paired so well with the cinematography and the action happening in the movie.

I thought that this movie was simply incredible. I enjoyed it from start to finish. Go see it. I will be intently watching the Golden Globes tomorrow and I will cry for Leo out of pride, no matter what happens.